Paris 2010

Many of you have asked me about our recent trip to Paris. What can I say? Paris is Paris, even though I spent half the time trying not to throw up.

This was the first time our daughter joined us on a holiday to the City of Light. She, like us, wanted to stay there and become French. Our holidays are usually spent walking (i.e. our daughter and I walk while the husband stops every couple of metres to take photos), spending hours in museums and eating. This time we were very limited by my inability to keep my eyes open after 2pm and the ‘morning’ sickness that, to this day, strikes every single day after 4pm (really, who was the genius who called it morning sickness?).

So the mornings were spent in this order: croissants and pain au lait for breakfast, a metro ride to the destination planned for that day, the rest of the morning soaking in as much as we could of our favourite city on earth, lunch and a quick return to the hotel so I could sleep. I did sleep an awful lot on the metros, at the table in a museum cafe’ and the most memorable had to be on an installation in the Cite’ des Sciences, where I woke up to find a family staring at me and discussing whether to call security. The evenings were usually spent having picnics on the hotel bed and watching Italian tv before sleeping.

In spite of all this, we managed to do a lot. We went to the Musee d’Orsay, the Eiffel Tower (we didn’t go up this year…I couldn’t have possibly queued for two hours without visiting the ladies’ or sitting down), Montmartre a couple of times (if you want to eat well for less, this is the area to go to for meals), the Cite’ des Sciences, La Defense, the Louvre (we even managed to pay the Mona Lisa a visit late one night. Munchkin’s words upon seeing her were “So what’s so special about the Mona Lisa, anyway?”!), Notre Dame and my favourite bookshop across the street from it (Shakespeare & Co), we took a boat trip on the Seine and did a lot more. I will be able to recall everything once I see the photos I guess!

I nicked this photo from the husband's blog. Pictured is Munchkin having a blast with me in the background trying to keep my eyes open.